Srinagar, Oct 14 : Pilgrimage and religious activities accounted for nearly 55 per cent of domestic overnight trips to Jammu and Kashmir within four major travel-purpose categories, more than double the share of holidays and leisure travel, according to government survey data accessed by Kashmir News Service (KNS).
Data from the National Statistics Office’s Domestic Tourism Expenditure Survey (DTES), conducted between July 2025 and June 2026, shows that pilgrimage and religious activities accounted for an estimated 54.8 per cent of trips in the relevant survey category.
Holidaying, leisure and recreation accounted for 22.8 per cent, while health and medical travel represented 19.9 per cent. Shopping-related trips constituted the remaining 2.4 per cent.
The figures indicate that religious travel forms the largest component among these four categories of domestic overnight trips to Jammu and Kashmir, substantially exceeding leisure tourism.
A comparison of the same categories across three Himalayan destinations reveals significant differences in their travel patterns.
In Himachal Pradesh, holidaying and leisure accounted for 44.7 per cent of trips, compared with 35.3 per cent for pilgrimage and religious activities.
Uttarakhand, meanwhile, recorded an even greater dependence on religious travel, with pilgrimage accounting for 63.3 per cent of trips in the corresponding categories. Holidays and leisure represented 24.7 per cent.
Jammu and Kashmir’s leisure share was therefore considerably lower than Himachal Pradesh’s, while its religious travel share remained below Uttarakhand’s.
The data also highlights the contribution of medical travel. Health and medical purposes accounted for 19.9 per cent of the relevant trips to Jammu and Kashmir, compared with 18.2 per cent in Himachal Pradesh and 11.7 per cent in Uttarakhand.
According to the survey records accessed by KNS, the calculations covered 2,698 sampled overnight household trips to Jammu and Kashmir, 1,921 to Himachal Pradesh and 4,461 to Uttarakhand.
The percentages were derived using the survey’s statistical multipliers and relate to the four leading purposes recorded in Block 5.1 of the survey.
The findings do not represent the distribution of every domestic trip undertaken for all purposes. Other categories, including business, social visits and education, are recorded separately under a different survey reference period.
The survey also records the main purpose of a trip undertaken by household members rather than treating each traveller as a separate trip.
The findings suggest that the composition of domestic travel to Jammu and Kashmir differs from that of Himachal Pradesh, where leisure accounts for a considerably larger proportion of trips within the comparable categories.
However, the data does not establish how much revenue each travel category generates within Jammu and Kashmir or whether the observed differences are statistically significant.
The survey, conducted under the 80th round of the National Sample Survey, collected information on domestic travel destinations, trip purposes, accommodation, transport and expenditure.(KNS)
